Writers Digest April Poem-a-Day Chapbook Challenge
April Chapbook Challenge day 1 – New Arrival
A New Puppy
He’s arrived! I know he’s so full of fun,
but start today as you mean to go on:
put everything small out of his reach;
and get some doggy rules ready to teach.
Ignore his big brown eyes begging for more
or he will put on weight, of that I’m sure
You can take him with you to the pet store,
but do not give him all that he begs for.
All that he needs is food, love and walking
and he’ll listen to you when you’re talking.
He’ll need a nice warm bed in his own room,
he doesn’t need to be in your bedroom!
Put away those fattening doggy treats,
keep him close by your side while in the streets,
but you can let him run loose in the park,
only keep him away from dogs that bark
and make sure that you clean up after him
and throw his mess into the doggy bin.
You’ll have a good companion for life:
he’ll stay by your side through every strife;
he’ll be honest faithful, loyal and true,
and he will watch everything that you do.
Treat him well and you will get your reward:
he will be your friend, your pet and your guard.
Of course, my first poem for this challenge just had to be a doggy one, just after I lost one of my own dogs! 🙁 😥
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April Chapbook Challenge day 2 – A dark poem and/or a bright poem
A Sleepless Night
In darkness I can suffer from fright.
During the long, long hours of night,
I hold my teddy quite tight.
All alone in my bed,
unable to sleep,
I could start to weep.
But I get up instead,
turn on my bright bedside light,
and very soon I start to write
and everything then will seem alright.
(This poem shape has been designed to take you from the diminishing darkness, and out into the increasing light)
April Chapbook Challenge day 3 – A tentative poem
Pear-shaped?
I’m
insane,
it is plain.
I really think
I am on the brink
of a brand new romance.
Shall I take a second chance?
Or will I soon be shedding tears
when it all goes pear-shaped over years?
But if nothing ventured, there’ll be no gain,
or maybe I’ll just end up alone again.
(This poem is designed to appear slightly pear-shaped)
April Chapbook Challenge day 4 – Hold that ……..
Hold that Moment
Hold that magic moment in your heart,
that feeling you both felt at the start.
Never let troubles tear you apart.
Hold that moment through every strife,
that moment you became man and wife.
Hold that precious moment all your life.
(Dedicated to Sean, my workmate, who is getting married on Mayday weekend)
April Chapbook Challenge day 5 – Plus
Back at Work
On the plus side, I feel better when I’m working
than I do when I am sitting at home shirking
all the jobs that I should be doing round my house,
whilst writing poems or using my computer mouse.
Plus, I can better afford to pay,
because I am out at work all day,
for all that needs doing for sure,
which I’ve no time to do any more.
How bizarre that in retirement
I cannot justify time spent
on mundane tasks I really hate,
and I leave my house in a state.
Yet when at work each day eight hours,
I still manage to vacuum all my floors
and get my house looking just right
before I settle down for the night.
There are lots of pluses for having a job:
it stops me from turning into a slob;
I get young company every day;
PLUS best of all, of course, I get my pay!
April Chapbook Challenge day 6 – Post
Junk Mail
My post has just arrived, for what it’s worth,
more junk mail than letters to cause my mirth:
double glazing leaflets – two of a kind,
and an advert for a vertical blind;
a bag to hold some charity money,
and a poster for a play that’s funny.
A bogof offer at a sandwich bar,
and a discount if I buy a new car;
a cheaper package for my mobile phone;
a dating site leaflet if I’m alone;
a letter from the R.S.P.C.A.
asking me to donate more from today.
And just in case I get hungry at night
there are meal deal offers to give delight:
a free glass of wine in my local pub;
and mid-week offers for some cheap pub grub.
There’s an Indian food take-away menu
and another for a pizza or two.
All this junk mail keeps my postman in work,
as he passes it to me with a smirk.
There was too much mail for my letter box
all bundled up, so on my door he knocks.
On the outside is a biggish booklet:
mobility goods. Do I need them yet?
Next a ladies’ spring clothing catalogue;
a thank you card sent from a sponsored dog.
Then there’s another letter from someone
who would like to come and value my home,
just in case I were thinking of selling.
Well, will I let them? That would be telling!
I have thrown all the junk mail in the bin.
This week I have filled it full yet again.
But now I’ve found an important letter,
the one that might maybe make life better,
from my pension people. Will I be rich?
Oh no! Not on that offer. Life’s a bitch!
April Chapbook Challenge day 7 – A Sevenling Poem
Sevenling “This Weekend”
My good old friend, she came to stay.
We had a Friday take-away.
We gossiped all through Saturday.
Sunday we walked out in the moors,
there was no time for doing chores.
We had a good week-end, of course.
Tomorrow is another day!
******************
Sevenling “Seven Days”
Last week we were deep in snow,
wrapped in mufflers out we’d go
fighting biting winds that blow.
This week out has come the sun,
gardening has all been done
and we’ve all had lots of fun.
Seven April days or so.
7-line poem (chosen because today is the 7th day of the challenge) that features two tercets and a one-liner in the final (third) stanza. Robert Lee Brewer’s poem below illustrates the form. The first two stanzas should have an element of three in them that can either play off each directly, work as juxtaposition, or have no connection whatsoever. The final line should work as either a punchline, weird twist, or punctuation mark.
“sevenling”
she wanted most of all–
two hands, a good heart,
lips with soft words.
she found instead
two cats, an empty bed,
slips of former love letters.
her records always work.
*****
April Chapbook Challenge day 8 – An Instructional Poem
The Iron Lady
Take
one strong
Grantham girl
with high moral
principles a great sense
of right and wrong, and who
wants to put her country to rights.
Raise her in her family grocer’s shop so
she knows understands how to make ends meet.
Educate her well and give her the confidence to make
her voice be heard among a host of simpering,arrogant men.
Let her marry a faithful, understanding and supporting husband.
Get a strong team of party canvassers to ensure she wins a local election,
so that she becomes a politician, so powerful and astute that she gains the respect
of most of her party as a Minister, and proves that her ideas can lick our country into shape.
Hold a General Election when the country is on its knees and have her return as Prime Minister.
Let her have the courage to send our forces to protect a British Island under threat.
Have her deal firmly with the Unions who have been holding the country to ransom.
Let her influence put some long-needed backbone back into our country.
Make sure she does not lose heart when all around her ridicule her.
Give her the strength to make difficult decisions, and not be
dissuaded by weaker men from making the right choices.
And when the country turns against her, give her the
wisdom and strength to turn the other cheek.
And finally when she has departed from
this mortal planet, let her soul
be reunited with
her beloved
Dennis.
This might not be rhyming verse, but it is my tribute to Maggie who died today 08.04.13. Not sure if the idea of shaping the poem like a spearhead will work on small screens.
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Keep in shape!
Body, keep in shape!
I know that your joints all ache,
but an effort you must make,
now you’ve got more time to take.
Brain, keep in gear!
You’ve not been active for a year,
but if you don’t use it, I fear
you will soon lose it, my dear.
Heart, keep on beating!
Don’t let it be defeating
to get up early for a meeting.
And just watch what you’re eating.
Boredom, go away!
Do something useful each day,
if not, join your friends at play.
There’s plenty to do in U3A.
Time, turn the clock back!
Give me the energy I now lack
like when I was running down the track.
If I ran now I’d have a heart attack!
******************
April Chapbook Challenge day 9 – A Hunter Poem and/or A Hunted Poem
Nimrod and Caesar
Nimrod was a mighty hunter, so the Bible said,
but like every ancient hunter, he ended up dead.
Nimrod was my mother’s dog, big, black and strong.
Everywhere my mother went, Nimrod would come along.
My mother loved good music, she would listen to Classics FM,
so when my mother died, we chose her favourite hymn.
Elgar composed Enigma Variations, Nimrod was the best.
We played Nimrod at Mum’s funeral, with Nimod’s ashes locked in her chest.
Caesar was an ancient ruler and his enemies hunted him down.
Mark Anthony came to bury him, not to praise him with a frown.
Caesar was my mother’s dog she’d had a while before.
He was another big black dog she really did adore.
But, like all dogs, he didn’t get to live very long
and that was when her next dog Nimrod came along.
We didn’t have Caesar’s ashes to put in Mum’s casket,
but in went a photo of him sitting in his basket.
The hunter and the hunted were united at Mum’s end.
It was my mother’s wishes that she’d be with her best friends,
and that they’d both go in her coffin when she was laid to rest.
Then we scattered all their ashes in places they all loved the best.
******************
April Chapbook Challenge day 10 – A Poem about Suffering
We shared a lingering loving minute or two, alone together, while the nurse left the room.
We were saying our goodbyes, although we’d already done that at home before.
She lay by my side and looked at me with those big brown soulful eyes
that she had used to gaze at me with so lovingly for so long.
It was as if she knew that this would be the last time.
I gently stroked her ears and smoothed her hair.
One more flick of her beautiful shaggy tail.
How I wanted to change my mind.
I wanted her to live for ever,
but they administered
their magic
potion.
And that was the end of her suffering.
😥
I held back the tears until I knew she was gone
and I picked myself up – life must go on.
I returned to my other dog, left all alone,
with no-one to argue over the bone
I had left her to chew while I took my Jezebel
to the vet, to try to make her well.
But it was too late, she was too old, too sick,
and a fateful decision I sadly had to make.
But although I know I have done the right thing,
I still grieve for my dog, and I’m suffering.
😥
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April Chapbook Challenge day 11 – In case of………..
In case of not finishing ……..
I’ll begin at the end of the story and then work back to the beginning.
I can start a new, better life again and I feel that I am now winning.
Now it is all finished at last, and he has gone away for good.
Our romance was all over, and I’d done all that I could.
What a shame that it had come to an end that way.
There seemed nothing more that we could say.
He was positive that he really did love her
when he told me he had met another,
but then I started shedding tears
We were fine for several years
It was a whirlwind romance.
we fell in love, by chance.
…………… and then
………………
**********
In case of starting a new romance
Just remember,
you’ve been down that way
several times before.
You know the score.
You’ll fall for the wrong guy
for ever more.
Just understand
what will happen.
It is preordained.
You’ll fall deeply
and irrevocably
in love again.
Just mark my words,
you’ll jump in with both feet
and will ignore all advice
from those that love you
and have shared
your sad defeat.
Just think again.
Do you want all that pain?
Do you want to spend hours
waiting for him to phone,
waiting for him to come
home with flowers?
Just take a while
to consider.
Do you really want all that
ephemeral pleasure?
Coupled in haste,
repented at leisure.
Just imagine him
ten years hence.
What do you see?
Will he still love you
or will he want to
be free?
************
April Chapbook Challenge day 12 – Broken
Shattered
Ooops!
I dropped it.
It was too late to save it.
There was no hope any more.
There it lay in a thousand pieces
on my kitchen floor.
I stifled a scream.
I didn’t want my dog to rush in
thinking there was something amiss,
for fear she would paddle
in the blood red mess.
She might walk through it,
and cut her paw, I guess.
A whole bottle of
good French red wine,
I had been saving
for the right time.
Not one of mine,
but one given to me
by a special friend,
had met its end.
And there it was,
scooped up in a dustpan,
an evil elixir all mixed in
with slivers of green glass.
Why did I choose to move it?
Why hadn’t I already drunk it?
Why, oh why had I saved it?
Why did I not taste it?
Oh what a waste!
***************
Broken
You bustled into my life at the start
and immediately I lost my heart.
Your deep brown eyes I could never resist,
and I was simply longing to be kissed.
As time wore on my love grew deep,
and I would watch you fast asleep.
I’d be slumberless, counting sheep,
worrying my long night away.
Years later I began to weep,
knowing that I could never keep
you, my love, from going astray.
Our life would always be that way,
until finally, resignedly, I’d say
“On your bike, you’ve had your day!”
knowing as these words were spoken,
my loving heart had been broken.
*****************
April Chapbook Challenge day 13 – A Comparison Poem
I’m just about to buy some new double glazing
and I think the choices are simply amazing.
How can I compare each window type side by side
when between each glazing site it is a car ride?
Photos I’ve taken just don’t demonstrate the styles
so I guess I’ll just have to walk on foot for miles
and compare each double glazed house that I will pass
to see which one of them I think has the best glass.
Then I’ll perhaps ask them who was their supplier,
but I guess I’d find that their price would be higher
than the reasonable quote that was sent to me
by a friendly guy in our local company.
And then there’s a friend of a friend who wants to quote,
and although his price will be lower, as he wrote,
will he do a professional job in the end,
or will I fall out with a potential friend?
It is so difficult making this decision
Which one to choose? My opinion’s in division.
I’m sure that whichever one I choose will be wrong
and I will be regretting my choice before long.
Maybe it is easier to leave things alone,
maybe it is easier to buy a new home.
But how can I find a nice new house that compares
with the house I’ve grown used to over many years?
************
I’ve just come back from the beauty parlour
because I needed some T L C.
I was fed up with my hair,
I just didn’t like being me.
In I went, an aging mouse,
hair too long and nails unkempt.
Out I came feeling tall as a house,
it was well worth all the money I spent.
Next week I’m having some highlights
and I might get my eyelashes dyed
The last time I had all that done
was when I was a blushing bride.
Is it too late in life to get tattooed?
And will they pierce my navel?
How being back at work improves my mood,
working with younger people.
There’s no comparison between
being retired, with time to shirk,
and having a good reason
to get out of bed early to go to work.
**********
April Chapbook Challenge day 14 – An Impromptu Poem or Two
It’s too early for day 14 PAD prompt yet
so I’ll have to pick my own topics.
Today the weather has changed again
and it feels like I’m in the tropics.
So I’ll shed my thermals and my vest
and look for my factor twenty,
my sun hat, my sun glasses
and a sun dress will be plenty.
I’m off to see some gardens
and as the weather’s taken this turn
instead of freezing myself to death
I’ll be risking getting sunburn.
My Ribes is about to burst
and so is my Forsythia,
the snowdrops are looking at their worst,
but there are buds on the Hydrangea.
It won’t be long before the Magnolia
bursts out into flower,
and soon the Clematis Montana
with be wandering all over my bower.
There are violets all over the patio,
Hyacynths are in full bloom,
Dicentra’s nearly halfway up
but Valerian’s not leaving much room.
The daffs that once were buried deep
are blooming bravely on,
they’ve gone from under a pile of snow
to nodding gaily in the sun.
A few more days of sunshine
and everything will be out,
but then the water authorities
will announce there is a drought!
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April Chapbook Challenge day 14 – A Sonnett
A poem with rules:- 14 lines, 8 syllables each line,rhyming scheme: ababcdcdefef,
Oooops, my muse has left home
I’m too busy at work and my brain has gone.
April Chapbook Challenge day 15 – Infested
Oooops, my muse has left home
I’m too busy at work and my brain has gone.
April Chapbook Challenge day 16 – Possible/Impossible
Oooops, my muse has left home
I’m too busy at work and my brain has gone.
April Chapbook Challenge day 17 – Express
Life is an express train heading towards your grave.
No matter how much you do, or what time you save,
you’ll be getting there faster than you’ll ever know,
so get on and enjoy life before it’s time to go!
Oooops, my muse has left home
I’m too busy at work and my brain has gone.
I cheated with this one I wrote before
cos I’ve got no time to think any more!
April Chapbook Challenge day 18 – I am ………….
I am never satisfied
I am never satisfied, so it seems.
A part-time job I wanted in my dreams.
But now I’m out working full time again
I seem to have a problem with my brain.
At last a job I found, I felt inspired.
I am much too youthful to be retired
but seemingly too old to work full time,
and have no time to write poems that rhyme.
My muse has obviously gone away,
and I was not so sharp at work today.
I have no time left now for having fun:
my energy seems to be on the run.
My choice now is of boring retirement,
or of having exhausting employment.
Why can’t there be a happy medium,
and why can’t I just go to work part-time?
***************
April Chapbook Challenge day 19 – Burn
She’d had a good life, I know
but then it was her time to go.
Her legs were in a bad condition,
I had to make that hard decision.
It was not very easy
but face it I must.
Ashes to ashes
dust to dust.
I left her to burn
and my heart does yearn.
All I have now is a box made of wood
which sits on the hearth near where she often stood
April Chapbook Challenge day 20 – Beyond
I am now beyond all hope!
There is definitely really no scope
for me leaving that bottle of red wine
until I reach the bottom. I still feel fine.
But then the next morning I feel so bad
with cramp in both legs, pumping blood
and I’m feeling like death warmed up,
until I get a hot, strong, black cup
of coffee and some food inside.
When will I learn to avoid
opening that
bottle?
I’m
not
sure
I can
now my brain has gone.
****************
Beyond
Hey Myschka, did you enjoy the walk you did with our Mum today?
Well, I was there too, walking along right beside you all the way.
There we all were, deep in thought, on our favourite Saturday walk
and it was so peaceful, there was no need at all for us to talk.
I notice your limp is much better now, you’re not dragging your paw
and you walked so much further than you ever could manage before.
You didn’t want to stop walking and go back home the shortest way,
you would have gone further but Mum guided you back, I’m glad to say.
I was really hoping that the triangular wood we would pass,
where we went on our first walk and ate the dandelions in the grass.
Remember that? It was over twelve years ago, when we were small,
bursting with excitement and with absolutely no fear at all.
I was there with you today, having fun. Did you see me running?
I went crashing through the woods, chasing squirrels that were coming.
Mum stopped a while and stared because she thought she saw something moving,
she listened carefully but walked on again cos she heard nothing.
But it was me. I was there beyond the invisible curtain
between your living world and Heaven I am now in for certain.
***********************
April Chapbook Challenge day 21 – A Senyru
a 3-line poem with a traditional 5/7/5 syllable (or sound) pattern, and the poem typically deals with the human condition.
I’m stiff as a board.
I’ve been out digging all day.
Boy, it was so hard.
*************
I have walked for miles
and now I’m so exhausted
and want my dinner!
***************
Where has the day gone?
I’ve been working hard since dawn
but my garden’s done.
*************
British Sundays
Splendid hours we pass.
We sow, mow, weed, seed and feed.
Splendour in the grass.
****************
A senyru is simple
but just not my style at all.
I like rhyming verse.
*****************
April Chapbook Challenge day 22 – A Complex Poem
“Can it really be that complicated?
Only an idiot couldn’t work it out.”
My husband said to me,
Putting the flatpack on the kitchen floor.
“Let me show you, Honey.”
Eventually, a couple of hours later,
Xpletives forgotten, he had done it!
*****************
Sestina – A Complex Poem – My Gardening Year
My garden’s lovely, all pink and purple
interspersed with the odd splash of yellow
because it is finally Spring season.
But everywhere else, of course, it is green,
except for the footpaths and patio,
and, not having a lawn, where there’s gravel.
There’s lots of hyacinths in my gravel,
they’re all growing wild and mostly purple.
Looking from the windows by my patio
I can see patches of sunshine yellow
daffodils still blooming amid the green.
This year surely has a mixed up season.
I missed mowing my lawn late one season
so next year I replaced it with gravel.
and just to make sure my garden was green
I placed conifers amid the purple.
Then my concrete ducks I painted yellow
and left them to waddle the patio.
Forsythia’s in flower, it’s yellow
but quickly it is sprouting vibrant green.
Snowdrops have all finished in the gravel,
violets spring from cracks in the patio.
But I know it is really Spring season
seeing Aubretia cushions of purple.
From now on there will be lots more purple
and I’ll have seen the last of the yellow.
I’m not keen on it in Summer season
I much prefer pink, magenta, and green
in my flower pots on my patio
or amongst the rocks around the gravel.
Then in Autumn I will clear the gravel
and chop down my buddleas, all purple.
I’ll empty the tubs on my patio
and watch most of my trees turning yellow,
then shades of red, although some will stay green.
That’s the end of my gardening season.
Leaves lie on gravel, all curled and yellow,
my hands go all purple, flagstones go green,
no flowers on my patio, in Winter season.
Ooooops! I got the pattern wrong – I’ll have to revise it when I’ve got a mo!
A Sestina is a structured 39-line poetic form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a three-line stanza. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern.
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April Chapbook Challenge day 23 – A Love Poem and/or an Anti-Love Poem
Love
I’d met my match,
you were my catch.
You returned all I sent
so in the event
I just couldn’t score.
You achieved more.
I really tried
but my balls went wide.
Oh heavens above,
I lost my game to love!
************
Undecided
This is not love, this is lust,
and tell him I really must.
But it’s hard to let down a friend
and it might be better in the end
to carry on as we are.
It won’t go far
but it’s fun while it lasts.
and deep emotions are past.
But can I do without him?
And why do I always doubt him
when he says he loves me?
Do I really want to stay free?
What is love anyway?
Do I want to feel that way?
It causes more pain than pleasure,
I’d rather have fun by the measure.
I don’t want a romance
just a partner in dance,
and candlelit dinners
are definite winners,
and the morning after
I’m filled with laughter.
Oh, heavens above,
maybe I am in love.
*************
April Chapbook Challenge day 24 – An Auto Poem
On Automatic Pilot
My alarm went off at its usual pace
and I rubbed my tired eyes and washed my face,
as I grudgingly got up from my bed
to prepare myself for the day ahead.
A bowl of cereal I was needing,
and my dog, she also needed feeding.
Soon my dog had eaten my Weetabix
and there were her dog biscuits in my dish!
I showered, got dressed and drove off to work,
but before too long I felt such a jerk.
I’d wondered where all the cars were that day –
when I got to work, it was Saturday!
I had been on automatic pilot.
Drink again on Friday night? I will not!
*************
April Chapbook Challenge day 25 – Everyone …………….
Not Everyone
Everyone loves the thrill of the chase,
everyone wants to win their race,
but not everyone’s up to the pace,
so everyone needs to lose with grace.
Everyone loves an exciting thrill,
everyone wants to fly down the hill,
but fun often comes before a spill,
so everyone needs to relax and chill.
Everyone loves a partner to win,
everyone wants romance to begin,
but romance might soon start to wear thin
so everyone needs to have a thick skin!
Everyone loves their heart to lose,
everyone wants a spouse to choose,
but not everyone has someone to amuse,
so everyone needs a hug for their blues.
**************
April Chapbook Challenge day 26 – Cast
Warning
Never cast aspersions without checking facts first,
the person who slanders is quite often the worst.
Never cast a clout until May be out, they say
you will regret it soon, without a doubt, next day.
Always cast your vote in the correct direction
if you vote the wrong way, they’ll lose the election.
Be careful when you cast on or off your stitches,
or your knitting will have wavy, ragged edges.
Don’t cast off from the shore when the seas are heaving
or this World you may very soon end up leaving.
Beware the gypsy who threatens to cast a spell,
her spells won’t work and she will take your cash as well.
Don’t stand by the canal and cast your fishing line
when a boat is passing, or it will break the twine.
When you’re casting characters for the play you’ve penned,
be careful not to offend your very best friend!
*************
April Chapbook Challenge day 27 – A Mechanical Poem
Car Mechanics
When I was married to a mechanic,
I was constantly told I was thick,
oh so thick!
I couldn’t get my car to start
even though I had taken the plugs apart
and warmed the distributor head on the stove
if only to prove
I had learned a bit from him.
But still he thought I was dim,
oh so dim!
But those days are gone now, as has he,
and now I know what it’s like to feel free
to be thick, to be dim, to be me.
And so if my car won’t start today
I’ll call out the RAC or the AA.
I have to pay, but I have to say
I like it better that way!
***************
April Chapbook Challenge day 28 – A Shadorma
a fun little 6-line poem that follows this syllable count: 3/5/3/3/7/5
I am not
much good at this type
of poem.
I like a
lengthy saga with a start,
middle and ending!
********
I wish I
had not opened that
bottle of
wine last night.
Because I have now got a
morning after head!
****************
I feel a
bit better after
a long walk
with my dog,
which helped me to clear the fog
in my addled brain.
*****************
Spring is here!
Lime green sprouts
from stark bare branched trees,
wild cherry
blossom blows
with pussy willow catkins
jiggling in the breeze.
************
I’m so tired,
I think I will have
an early
night and wait
until morning before I
do my ironing!
******
April Chapbook Challenge day 29 – Pick a line from one of your poems and make it the title of your poem
Wild Cherry
All alone, you stand there proudly,
visibly declaring loudly,
bedecked in your bridal glory,
you are first to tell your story.
Meanwhile all around you stand stark
other trees, barren, bare-branched, dark,
save for some sign of lime green
leaves emerging that can be seen.
Your confetti blown by the breeze
settles at the base of those trees
in a drifting, shifting pillow,
with catkins shed by a willow.
Will your flowers turn to berries?
Will they form sweet, ruby cherries?
Will they survive April rainfall?
Will birds come your young fruits to steal?
When I come back here in the Fall
Will there be any sign at all
of your former bridal glory?
Will you call out again to me
with pride, or will there simply be
a lonely, bereft little tree,
shedding her dying rustic leaves,
with a sad unfinished story?
*************
Splendour in the Grass
My garden some say is a mess,
to gardeners it is, I guess.
the pond is full of newts and frogs
which seem to fascinate my dogs.
A host of daisies, dandelions,
poppies, primroses, celandines
dot the rampant jungle of green
where my back lawn used to be seen.
I used to lawn mower over,
leaving clumps of purple clover
to encourage the bees to feed,
and there is often wild bird seed
dropped down from the feeding station
growing, or feeding the pigeon..
I do not care for bowling green
precision in my back garden,
nor for lawns well manicured
striped, or like a chequer board.
I care more for the birds in trees
and the buzz-buzzing of the bees
that come swarming in as they pass
to feed in splendour in the grass.
****************
A Line from each Poem Poem
He’s arrived! I know he’s so full of fun
and I wanted him to stay for ever.
We fell in love, by chance.
Splendid hours we passed,
and it was so peaceful,
there was no need at all for us to talk.
Hold that precious moment all your life.
Can it really be that complicated?
I just couldn’t score.
It was too late to save it.
My loving heart had been broken.
Leaves lie on gravel, all curled and yellow.
Which one to choose? My opinion was in division.
I just didn’t like being me.
No matter how much he did, or what time he saved,
I am never satisfied, so it seems.
Shall I take a second chance?
Everyone loves an exciting thrill,
repented at leisure.
Beware the gypsy who threatens to cast a spell.
Those days are gone now, as has he.
I could start to weep.
All I have now is a box made of wood
from stark bare branched trees.
I am now beyond all hope
and deep emotions are past.
Shall I prepare myself for the day ahead.
with a sad unfinished story?
How bizarre that in retirement
there are mobility goods. Do I need them yet?
Time, turn the clock back!
Tomorrow is another day!
****************
April Chapbook Challenge day 30 – Two for Tuesday – A Finished Poem and/or a Never Finished Poem
The first poem will be very hard for me
because I never finish anything I start, you see!
So the second poem should be quite easy,
if I can finish it before my dog and me
go out for our walk before we have our tea.
*************
April is finished and I feel a bit sad.
Weatherwise, it’s been good, but sometimes bad,
but whatever the weather, I’m so glad
I’ve read others’ poems, some poignant, some mad,
all different themes from the prompts we’ve had,
written for the challenge of April PAD.
I’ve learned some new styles, some I have relished,
most comments and verses will be cherished.
but my own poems will never be finished.
Each time I read them again I have wished
I’d used a phrase a bit more accomplished
before my potty poem I relinquished.
I’ll look forward to Wednesdays from now on,
usually by midweek my muse has long gone,
and I’ll try to still pen a poem a day
but I doubt that will last long into May.
******************
I’ve finished finishing.
“It’s finished”, he said, as he walked away.
I was devastated, I have to say.
But life went on in its usual way
and soon I was glad that he didn’t stay
I met another, better man to take his place,
someone who would always treat me with grace.
someone who would never want to replace
me for someone new with a younger face.
Like Shubert’s symphony our love was unfinished
and our mutual feelings are still not diminished,
to stay together forever we would have wished
but our relationship was badly blemished.
But then as one door closed another one opened
and I found another lover, more of a friend.
It didn’t last long, it quickly came to an end
and I was left on my own with more time to spend.
I suppose that I have now become quite tarnished.
I’m just left with my memories to be cherished.
I’ve no more desire for my love to be lavished
on something that will probably soon be finished.
********************
A finished wild cherry tree
I’ve stood here all Winter among all these giant trees
who usually make me feel like I am on my knees
but now I’m the belle of the woodland ball
in my bridal gown, and I wow them all.
People come along and stop and stare
at my beautiful blossom, the other treess are bare.
They point cameras at me, but I don’t care,
my beauty and happiness I like to share.
But it won’t be long before it all finishes
my blossom will get washed off, like the dishes,
my petals will float off away with the suds
and I’ll be left with just a few little buds.
Birds will come along then and peck at me
and fly off with my buds before they are big enough to be
big, juicy red cherries to hang from my arms
to attract those people to my other charms.
Then, worst of all, in the Autumn season,
to stay alive and green they’ll have no reason
and my burnished leaves will curl and become all sodden,
as they fall to the ground where they will be trodden.
And I will be spending the winter asleep
hoping I can find enough strength to keep
myself ready for Spring when I have to flourish.
I’ll rest awhile, but my cycle will never finish.
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